3 ms·

You don't really need a car. What's your excuse?

vel0city 2y ago
I do, in that public transportation around me doesn't go to places I routinely need to go and the distances involved are impractical for a bicycle. At the rates and frequency I'd have to pay to take things like Uber, the break-even to own a car is pretty quick. If the public transit here was better, I'd totally be down to ditch the car. I do tend to take transit when its competitive and makes sense. This evening, I have to take the kids and their stuff to visit the grandparents for an overnight. Their home is 30mi away from me. Even though I've got public transit immediately outside my door, there's no public transit servicing their home. I could take the two-hour bus ride for the bus at the edge of my neighborhood to the edge of the public transit network, it's still >10mi to their home. This trip for this afternoon on Uber is ~$40 each way. For one trip I'll make a few times in a month. Or I can take my car and make it a 25-minute trip that costs me several dollars each way. We also go visit some family >70mi each way from us on a pretty regular basis. There's definitely no transit available to get to where they live, and an Uber going all the way over there is >$100 each way. I mostly work from home, the "office" is ~2mi from my home, I love to ride my bike and I take public transit a decent bit, and yet I still manage to put >13,000mi on my car every year. That is how extremely car centric DFW is. Most people I know who "need" a truck would absolutely be able to do everything they use their truck for with a small hatchback to a medium sized crossover.
- trimethylpurine 2y ago
  It sounds like you have good reasons. Kind of like many truck owners. What level of sacrifice you make to get what you really need apparently isn't necessarily comparable with anyone else, right? Commuting is a choice. No one is making you work where you do, or live where you do, at least not since 1863. No judgement here, I'm just pointing it out. Is it possible we're all on the same team? Even the pickup owners?
  - vel0city 2y ago
    > Most people I know who "need" a truck would absolutely be able to do everything they use their truck for with a small hatchback to a medium sized crossover. Once again, let me restate that, and maybe it'll sink in. > Most people I know who "need" a truck would absolutely be able to do everything they use their truck for with a small hatchback to a medium sized crossover. These people aren't really doing anything that would seriously impact their lives if they didn't own a truck, but they convinced themselves they needed a truck. I'm not saying this about all truck owners; I know lots who actually do tow campers and boats, who actually do pickup yards of gravel and what not on a regular basis, who literally do live on a ranch, etc. And I know tons of people who own a truck because how else would they get their mountain bike to the trail across town, or who have such a culture deeply ingrained in their mind they couldn't be seen driving a smaller vehicle for more than a day. That they need it because "it's comfortable", as if a luxury sedan isn't comfortable. For many it is a lifestyle choice they choose to make to drive a vehicle massively oversized for their needs, and is not at all similar to the fact I need a car to to most stores and generally function in society because that's how this city was designed. If you haven't been to the Southern United States, you probably just don't understand the truck culture I'm talking about. You may think I'm making some straw man, but I personally know more than a dozen of these people.

I do, in that public transportation around me doesn't go to places I routinely need to go and the distances involved are impractical for a bicycle. At the rates and frequency I'd have to pay to take things like Uber, the break-even to own a car is pretty quick. If the public transit here was better, I'd totally be down to ditch the car. I do tend to take transit when its competitive and makes sense. This evening, I have to take the kids and their stuff to visit the grandparents for an overnight. Their home is 30mi away from me. Even though I've got public transit immediately outside my door, there's no public transit servicing their home. I could take the two-hour bus ride for the bus at the edge of my neighborhood to the edge of the public transit network, it's still >10mi to their home. This trip for this afternoon on Uber is ~$40 each way. For one trip I'll make a few times in a month. Or I can take my car and make it a 25-minute trip that costs me several dollars each way. We also go visit some family >70mi each way from us on a pretty regular basis. There's definitely no transit available to get to where they live, and an Uber going all the way over there is >$100 each way. I mostly work from home, the "office" is ~2mi from my home, I love to ride my bike and I take public transit a decent bit, and yet I still manage to put >13,000mi on my car every year. That is how extremely car centric DFW is. Most people I know who "need" a truck would absolutely be able to do everything they use their truck for with a small hatchback to a medium sized crossover.

trimethylpurine 2y ago
It sounds like you have good reasons. Kind of like many truck owners. What level of sacrifice you make to get what you really need apparently isn't necessarily comparable with anyone else, right? Commuting is a choice. No one is making you work where you do, or live where you do, at least not since 1863. No judgement here, I'm just pointing it out. Is it possible we're all on the same team? Even the pickup owners?
- vel0city 2y ago
  > Most people I know who "need" a truck would absolutely be able to do everything they use their truck for with a small hatchback to a medium sized crossover. Once again, let me restate that, and maybe it'll sink in. > Most people I know who "need" a truck would absolutely be able to do everything they use their truck for with a small hatchback to a medium sized crossover. These people aren't really doing anything that would seriously impact their lives if they didn't own a truck, but they convinced themselves they needed a truck. I'm not saying this about all truck owners; I know lots who actually do tow campers and boats, who actually do pickup yards of gravel and what not on a regular basis, who literally do live on a ranch, etc. And I know tons of people who own a truck because how else would they get their mountain bike to the trail across town, or who have such a culture deeply ingrained in their mind they couldn't be seen driving a smaller vehicle for more than a day. That they need it because "it's comfortable", as if a luxury sedan isn't comfortable. For many it is a lifestyle choice they choose to make to drive a vehicle massively oversized for their needs, and is not at all similar to the fact I need a car to to most stores and generally function in society because that's how this city was designed. If you haven't been to the Southern United States, you probably just don't understand the truck culture I'm talking about. You may think I'm making some straw man, but I personally know more than a dozen of these people.